Abstract
The forms of economic system salient to the progress of human life at present are agriculture and trade. Archaeological records show that agriculture was introduced into Island Southeast Asia by the migrations of Austronesian-speaking people after 2,800 BCE. Exchange and trade occurred later when luxury products such as spices and incense-woods were in high demand in the Chinese and Western Asian markets. However, despite all this trade and development in some regions in Island Southeast Asia, there still exist surviving hunter-gatherer populations, which among others are the Agta of the Philippines and the Punan of Borneo. Based on available social and economic historical data it is understood that the Agta and the Punan lead a very interactive life with neighbouring farmers in the rainforest environment. The Agta engage in agricultural labour and collect forest products to exchange for supplementary food with the farmers, which cannot be acquired by hunting. And, the Punan play a significant role providing forest products for the non-nomads in exchange for items of no great importance to the Punan such as “metal, salt and tobacco”. However, it is assumed that both the Agta and Punan still concentrate on their foraging economy as their primary means of subsistence. Up until today both Agta and Punan maintain a prehistoric subsistence system as a cultural diversion, being pushed into a specific niche by sedentary farmers. Nevertheless, a group of present day Agta people in Zambales Province have altered their subsistence system relying totally in swidden agriculture. Meanwhile, rich sago starch and large varieties of animals provided by the Borneo rain forest ecosystem enable the Punan to survive by basically practising hunting and gathering.
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Published in: Simanjuntak, Truman et.al. (eds.). 2006. Amerta. Journal of Archaeological Research and Development. Jakarta: National Research and Development Centre for Archaeology. Vol.24.No.1:42-46. ISSN 0125-1324
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